25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian
The implications of this verse are very considerable. In the absolute sense the work of the law is finished when faith is born, and this can admit of no reservation. That is Paul's point here. But we must be careful lest we assume that the sanctions of the law are thereby superseded and can therefore be ignored. On the contrary, we are by faith 'en-lawed' to Christ (1 Corinthians 9:21), and bound to a new obedience by a far more inexorable chain than before. Not only so. Faith enables us to honour the sanctions of the law, by virtue of the new nature that we have received in Christ. And insofar and inasmuch as we live the life of faith the law is unnecessary for us, for we will naturally keep it anyway, by virtue of the indwelling Spirit of God. But each believer is also at the same time an unbeliever ('Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief'), and since this is so, faith must pass through the disciplines of the law again and again - as often, in fact, as faith stumbles and falls and 'reverts', so to speak, to the old order. The sheepdog is, strictly speaking, unnecessary so long as the sheep keep on the pathway; but as soon as one strays, the dog is at its heels in a flash, to oblige it back to its proper place. So it is with the law and its sanctions. Ever and again, as we stray, it hedges us in, and leads us back, to Christ, to the place where faith once more makes its presence unnecessary.